In the evening we meet at the jetty at 18:00 and are warmly welcomed. The Spoilsport is ready and we can move into our cabins. We are welcomed with a glass of bubbly water. This is followed by a briefing on all the safety regulations and the diving procedure is also explained. Then Captain Peter speaks, a sea dog like the ones in the book. We can't take the planned route because the weather is too bad. There's too much wind, so we can't go to the outer reef. So the tour goes to the inner reef, we are a bit disappointed at first, but in the end it was a great tour. That night we head further north to reef number 10.
The diving area
Extends from Summer Bay to the Cod Hole
Friday
We start early in the morning, but we are not ready until 9am, there are lots of instructions again and then Jump in the Water. On Friday we have three dive sites on the programme for the day. Summer Bay, Steve's Bommie and Clam Beds. We skip the night dive - 3 dives are enough for the first day. The wind makes a lot of waves and the movement in the water restricts visibility considerably, which also makes photography difficult. Our cook, June, conjures up really good food from the galley and we're having an excellent time.
Saturday
Saturday morning starts at the Coral Kingdom with lots of great corals, as the name suggests. Then it's on to the Two Towers, the best dive site in the world according to our marine biologist Pablo. He's not wrong, but he's never been to North Sulawesi 😅. Shoals of blue-striped snappers, hunting barracudas and much more. Then it's on to Challanger Bay, which is more of an ordinary dive site during the day and then all hell breaks loose at night, when the hunting is on. Whitetip reef sharks, mackerel, tuna and much more. They all come to the light of our diving torches, rushing in from all sides. One of the best night dives we've ever had.
Sunday
On Sunday night, the sea is rocking violently and we have our first dive at Cod Hole, normally THE dive site in the area, if it wasn't for the current from all sides... The Lighthouse Bommie is like a walk in the park afterwards, we have open deck, which means that there is a large time window for diving. We only want to dive once, so we rest a little longer. Marita, the tour director, tells us that she is making two groups to jump in because the dive site is rather small. When everyone has come back, we jump in and we were alone at the dive site. When our dive buddies realise what we are doing, they congratulate us on our good decision. The last dive is Pixie Garden, which has beautiful corals but not much else going on.
Here is the video of the dive sites, attention it is 10 minutes, so it takes some time.
BBQ Party
The twelve different nationalities get on well together. Our colleagues come from England, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, New Zealand, Canada, America, Germany, Belgium, France and Korea. Oh yes, and there were also two from Switzerland.
Richard the American in particular is eternally grateful to us because we found his GoPro on the surface after a dive. Our captain Peter is also a really good singer and Ricardo the first mate is a good barbecue chef. We get an Australian BBQ, it was very tasty.
Afterwards there is a video of our tour to marvel at, Pablo is also a great photographer, in a few days we will be able to download his pictures and videos and publish them here. Many thanks already to Mike Ball Dive Expeditions. The whole crew was very helpful and always ready to have fun. We can only recommend the tour, everything was very well organised.
Lizard Island
In the morning we are taken to the beach in the rubber dinghies and soon we are on our way to the airport, well, a small covered waiting room and a cord separates us from the aeroplane. The flight back over the reef was nice, but unfortunately we didn't understand a word of the pilot's comments.
Lizard Island Airport and the flight to Cairns
A little tired, we arrive safely in Cairns and the ground shakes under our feet for quite a while.
